I had a blog entry last December about cuts to music in the Detroit Public Schools
Along comes this very thoughtful and thorough piece about DPS and its new approach to music education via a piece by George Shirley that was published this week in NewMusicBox.org.
Music Education in Detroit’s Public Schools: The Struggle to Survive, give you the not pretty picture. Shirley, the first African American ever appointed to a music teaching position in DPS, has been leading a campaign to fight the terrible cuts to music and arts education in the Detroit Public Schools.
I do, however, argue for including music as a part of the solution to
effective academic and intellectual growth, rather than debasing it as a
frill, a sop held out like a lollipop, an enticement for girls and boys
to behave and eat all their spinach before they can go out and play.
The presence of music today in most schools–when I was a student in
Detroit, music was present in all schools–will under the Bobb plan
become history.
It is a source of great concern when I see how seemingly responsible
citizens like Robert Bobb relegate music to the status of entertainment.
Bobb appears to perceive music solely as a prize awarded for good
grades, rather than a proven mind and character-building discipline
capable of opening pathways that lead to good grades and further
intellectual accomplishment, a rigorous discipline fully adept at
imparting life lessons that play a continuing role in all aspects of a
student’s future endeavors.
